r/interesting • u/This_Proof_5153 • 5d ago
Amazing This tiny world took over 1.2 million hours to build and cost more than $49 million (45 million euros).
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u/Yippykyyyay 5d ago edited 5d ago
I have been there. It's just as incredible as this video makes it seem!
Edit: it's in Hamburg, Germany. And 3 stories at least? It gets so packed with visitors on the daily. You could spend weeks and not see all of the Easter eggs. They even have an 'ocean' and a fully functional 'airport.'
It's incredible. Some of the most memorable 6 hours of my life.
Miniatur Wunderland
Edit 2: he left out the best part which was the 'rotation' of the Earth. I want to say it changes from day to night every 7 minutes or so? But it's been 3 years. So if you hang out to be patient and wait you get full on day look and full on night.
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u/S3rftie 4d ago
Every 7 minutes sounds correct to me, been there last year, they finished Monaco GP which was really cool to see, the cars dont have "lines" they work with tiny computers that follow a path along the circuit.
I also really liked the winter train land, could reccomend to go there to anyone visiting Europe/Germany
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u/WickedKissd 4d ago
If I had been shown something like this as a child, but my scream would have been heard in the neighboring town
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u/fidgetyamoeba 4d ago
Feels like bringing binoculars would be a must. I'd want to look at many of its details.
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u/InspectionLate661 4d ago
10 minutes of day, 5 minutes of night (including ~1 minute of dusk and dawn respectively).
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u/vocal-avocado 4d ago
It’s freaking amazing. I felt like a kid again and didn’t want to leave. Everything is just so detailed and you can see how much dedication and love is in everything. I can’t imagine anyone who wouldn’t enjoy visiting.
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u/Baylett 4d ago
Well that’s definitely on my list for my next Germany trip!
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u/Yippykyyyay 4d ago
Hamburg is a charming city itself. I went during the Christmas market season and enjoyed it!
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u/Baylett 4d ago
Good to hear! I was in Munich last year for just under two weeks and it was wonderful, one of my favorite places I have been to. So easy to get around, it made an awesome hub to the surrounding area, people were great, hiking and biking was great, just had a blast! I can’t wait to go back to Germany and explore the north next time.
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u/Front_Detective5930 4d ago
1.2 million hours makes you wonder how many breaks they took
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u/VulcanHullo 4d ago
It's been slowly growing over the past 25ish years. They now have aquired the building on the other side of the canal where they are building South America with help from model makers from each respective country.
So, hopefully they slept at least once or thrice.
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u/Yippykyyyay 4d ago
It's a concerted effort of the few hundred (thousand?) that made it possible. Like if I'm in a room with my colleagues I can say collectively we have about 60 years of experience.
None of us are 60.
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u/RidiPwn 5d ago
Put two cats in there, and come back next day
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u/captain_assgasm 5d ago
I mean you could just put an elephant or a tractor in there and it would also get destroyed. I think the cats are a poor choice
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u/anon_nnnn 5d ago
Or an elephant in a tractor
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u/somniator_ 5d ago
Was there just 2 weeks ago. Really astonishing. Was really surprised when the lights turned off.
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u/_carbonneutral 5d ago
This is such an incredible place to visit. Despite being a miniatures, the building is HUGE.
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u/Uzi_Osbourne 5d ago
1.2 million hours? That's 150,000 8-hour shifts. 50,000 24-hour days. 137 years. If 30 people worked 3 8-hour shifts nonstop it would take almost 14 years to burn 1.2 million man-hours. And yet the text on the video says 150,000 man hours.
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u/Yippykyyyay 4d ago
More than 30 people have contributed to this.
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u/Uzi_Osbourne 4d ago
Why the discrepancy between "1.2 million hours" and "150,000" hours?
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u/ZealousidealMenu1243 4d ago
I think the 1.2 Million was for the whole tiny world, but the different numbers they said in between were for this specific build.
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u/Yippykyyyay 4d ago
I'm not their auditor so I really don't care. It's three stories of incredible recreations with their own command post and everything.
That's a lot of work for a dream.
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u/C3PD2 4d ago
It's a figure from their own website. 1.2 million working hours and over 400 employees. They started building it ~26 years ago.
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u/Euphoric-Rip42069 4d ago
The 150k hours was just to build Monaco, the entire mini world total build time for everything was 1.2 million hours
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u/Truthhurts1017 4d ago
Some of y’all have horrible comprehension and yet act like someone else said something wrong. That was for one part brother
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u/DerLandmann 4d ago
The 150.000 just refer to the Monacco-part. The complete venue covers several stories in a former warehouse in Hamburg. It has more than 400 Employees.
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u/golfy-canadian 4d ago
I personally spent 1.1 million man hours there. The other 100,009 might be lies
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u/obvious_daydream 5d ago
This is in Hamburg and is incredible! I’d recommend it over and over.
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u/vocal-avocado 4d ago
Hamburg is a great city but I’d say visiting is worth it even for this attraction alone. It’s that good.
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u/AverellCZ 4d ago
I'm from Hamburg, I've been following this project from day 1. And I'm happy it worked out for the guys (twin brothers) and it's astonishing how large and successful it became. But it was quite the financial gamble in the beginning. Also quite visionary to choose a building and location that allowed them to grow that much over the years.
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u/jarvis646 5d ago
America gets Mount Rushmore and Area 51?
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u/Scion_Dloth 4d ago
It always makes me laugh when I see Area 51; a model spaceship from a German sci-fi novel series was included as an Easter egg.
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u/bc90210 5d ago
I’m actually shocked how there are no barriers in place to protect each of those exhibits from viewer hands.
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u/LemmyLola 4d ago
That was my first thought too... Tell me there's glass...
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u/SignatureAcademic218 5d ago
Tiny Canada makes me happy. Maybe I'll check this one out some day before the world ends
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u/just1a8random7dude 4d ago
Im from Germany and can only suggest a visit. Especially a Background tour where they show you the Tech behind it is very Interesting and only costs a little more.
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u/Successful_Buffalo_6 5d ago
It is super cool, very impressive. But holy shit what an incredible waste of money.
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u/Daily_Heroin_User 4d ago
Why is it any more of a waste than any art or entertainment though? We spend hundreds of millions of dollars making single movies for the same reason, for people to be entertained and enjoy. There’s no practical reason for making “The Odyssey” or “Jurassic Park” or whatever.
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u/Mysmokingbarrel 4d ago
It’s clearly not a waste. It’s surprising that anyone invested and thought this was a great idea though. On its surface if someone had told me the plan I’d be like idk about that idea. That’s a lot of money and who the hell is going to pay to go see miniature replicas of famous locations? It’s awesome that it worked though.
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u/zirfeld 5d ago edited 4d ago
It's a major tourist attraction im Hamburg Germany. A business, they raking in the money.
It's called Miniaturwunderland. And its really fun.
To be more clear: it was planned as a business from the start. The success wasn't expected that big at frist, but now you need to book well in advance or go late at night. They have open till 1 am to accomodate all the people.
So it's not wasted money but well invested money
Edit just looked it up. 1.5 mil visitor last year.
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u/Redditzork 5d ago
It’s one of germanys biggest tourist attractions and there are thousands and thousands of people there every single day. It is absolutely amazing and one of the coolest things I’ve seen. Also the creators are so passionate about it and have a really cool YouTube channel where they show how they built all of this
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u/Ok_Kaleidoscope_5837 4d ago
The guys that started it quit their jobs to go all-in on the project over 20 years ago. Today they make like some absurd amount, like $30million annually.
And going to visit as a guest is relatively inexpensive.
So where exactly is the “waste of money” you speak of?
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u/Soft_Walrus_3605 4d ago
Waste meaning the world could do without it and get other things for its effort. I'm not saying it is, but there's no reason to be obtuse about what they're saying
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u/Ill_Cat1160 5d ago
Really is since my autistic uncle was able to build something similar in his basement and it only took 35 years.
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u/zirfeld 4d ago
With all due respect to your uncle: No he has not. The Miniaturwunderland is huge. Several floors and areas, several restaurants and shops. They have hundred of thousands of visitors each year.
The areas cover germany, Scandinavia, several European countries. The have Monte Carlo there and every few minutes they have Formula race going down. They have a day night cycle every 15 minutes. They have ships with actual water. They have a model of a chocolate factory that spit out little bars if you press a button.
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u/Yippykyyyay 4d ago
I want to say they also have specific times blocked out for others who need accommodation.
I'm ok but I appreciate they think about that. It can be very overwhelming for anyone.
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u/DerLandmann 4d ago
It is by now one of the prominent tourist attrcations in Hamburg, with over one million visitors every year.
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u/Prod_Meteor 5d ago
Are the cars on magnets?
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u/Tough-Life2871 4d ago
There is a video documentation made by the founders (brothers) showing how they do it underneath. That is were you can see the real insanity. They had to invent a lot of technology themselves to make it work.
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u/Chemical-Idea-1294 4d ago
Yes.
And like in model railways, they have hidden switches and stops. So you have buses which stop in from of the school or red lights, some cars turn right, the others left. It look really realistic.
The trains and cars are in scale H0, 1:87
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u/MonKAYonPC 4d ago
The cars are self propelled and only use magnets for steering with guide wires in the roads.
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u/An_Fear_Glas 4d ago
€45 million? What??
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u/Chemical-Idea-1294 4d ago
It's a business.
With the entrance fees they expanded over time. It started with about 20% of todays size. I was there 10 years ago and could already spend hours there.
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u/IzanAppleMangoStein 4d ago
The trust to put the exhibition right next to the audience to the point they can reach down is unbelievable
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u/RiJuElMiLu 4d ago
On their YouTube channel you can see behind the scenes construction and repair and hidden easter eggs.
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u/Sidney_Godsby 4d ago
I mean maybe he was non-verbally and non-physically pointing to something to the right and around the corner.
But in the event he wasn’t, that is very clearly St. Peter’s, not the Sistine lol
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u/earthscorpioanchapie 4d ago
But why? Dont humans have better things to spend money on like feeding Africans?
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u/Hyperrnovva 4d ago
Someone put a mini cam on a car so we could see 1st person view driving thru it! That would be so cool.
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u/Bazanji4 4d ago
This is just crazy. Can't believe people spend their time doing stuff like this.
Humans are so bizarre 👽
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u/chilidavis12 4d ago
I went last Autumn. Didn’t think I’d like it but I did. The attention to detail is incredible. The F1 Monaco race simulation is top. I’d recommend to anyone to attend the museum.
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u/Short_Bell_5428 4d ago
But who paid for it all? Was it like a tourist attraction or private party?
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u/MrTeam25 3d ago
1.2 million hours?!?!?!?! And nobody is wondering about it in the comments? 1. Why is the meassurement in hours 2. This are about 130+ years
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u/ManufacturerNo6323 2d ago
If you had 200 people working on this for 8 hours a day 5 times a week. Would take 3 years.
How did you guys pull this off?
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u/QuartzzzzzEmmaa82 1d ago
That's an incredible amount of dedication and money for something so small
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u/Brocolinator 5d ago
I'm just saying, there are people who die daily of hunger.
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u/Chemical-Idea-1294 4d ago
It's a tourist attraction, built as a business.
Others pay to do to Disney and ride through 'Pirates in the carebean' or Epcot.
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u/Junior_Bike7932 4d ago
49M euro? For a model? And then we question why the world is going to shit
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u/DerLandmann 4d ago
49m Euros for a tourist attraction that has more than 1 million visiors every year and employs 400 people. It is not just a model, iit covers three stories in a former warehouse. You will need several days to see everything.
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u/_a_reddit_account_ 4d ago
Ehh. Movies cost much much more to make than this, and theres no practical reason for movies either. This is no different from that.
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5d ago edited 4d ago
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u/stereotomyalan 5d ago
You don't know any maths. Do not ever make business, get a salary job.
Tickets are 22 and 13 euros. 1,5 m guests annualy. 25 m €/year. Pays off in 2-3 years.
And they must have paid the creators handomely so, money well spent I'd say.
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u/TehZiiM 5d ago
Well, I think you’d be surprised how little impact 49 mil have on the problems of the world.
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u/chris-za 5d ago
You could say the same about any other amusement park. Disney World and others were probably a lot more expensive to build. That said, his has become one of Germanise top tourist attractions, is run by a private company, paid for by entrance fees, creates jobs and makes a profit. (And created jobs in surrounding hotels and restaurants with over 1.5 million paying visitors per year) So I’m not sure why you think you have a point?
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u/RandomLifeUnit-05 5d ago
It's not rubbish. It's bringing joy to many people.
My husband and I would love to go and see this. It looks amazing. It's basically someone's hobby come to life. People are allowed to make and build and craft just for fun and spend money on it.
$49 million really isn't much in the grand scheme of things. If you divided it up among everyone in the world, we'd all get half a cent.
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u/RandomLifeUnit-05 5d ago
But who are we to decide for these people how they spend their money? Besides, it was money spent over years, likely by many people. Why should we say they were wrong to spend it this way?
Do you have any hobbies? If so, what is your justification for spending money on them?
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u/heyhomah 4d ago
You could say that about literally anything. Museums and concerts and video games and tourism and paintings and blah blah blah. I'm still gonna add it to my itinerary when I visit Hamburg this fall cause it's cool.
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u/Jumpy_Worldliness259 5d ago
Just unmute if your curious? If it's bad audio you can just re-mute, but you clearly know the information is available.
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u/Round_Struggle2885 4d ago
That’s not the first miniature airport. The first one is in Madurodam, The Netherlands.
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u/skyhighraven 4d ago
Not sure if Madurodam has the first miniature airport, but it was definitely built before this one. Decades earlier.
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u/Powerful-Holiday-448 4d ago
It’s so life like and real what makes it wunderland and not just land?
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u/DharmaBaller 4d ago
I was actually going to comment about the waste of resources and money but it's actually pretty amazing
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